Lenore Flew!

When I got him almost a year ago, his wings were already clipped, and he
was never fledged. His clip was very severe, and he didn't know how to
land properly. As a result, his landings were crashes, and he broke all
of his tail feathers.

A few months ago, he finally got all of his flight feathers in, but he
still couldn't fly. He was able to glide down much, much better, but he
wasn't getting any lift. Sometimes he'd get a little lift when he first
took off, but no more than a couple of feet. And sometimes he'd fly like
a helicopter, up a little bit, and then down in a circle. It made me really worry and I wondered if he'd ever figure it out. It
made me sad when Digby would fly across the room and he'd want to follow
her, but he knew he couldn't. The past couple of weeks, I've been
working with him more, trying to build up his muscles, but I wasn't
seeing any improvement.

But yesterday morning I brought him upstairs with me to get the birds' breakfast
ready, and I sat down on the couch in the living room to wait for their
mash to cool enough to give it to them. While I was sitting on the
couch, Lenore was happily sitting on my hand while I gave him scritches,
and then Sydney started making a fuss. All of the sudden, Lenore took
off and up. I thought he'd land on the coffee table right in front of
the couch or on the floor in front of the table, but he didn't. He flew
all the way to Sydney's cage! It was about 15 feet, and he flew up about
four or five feet. I was so happy!

Then, Sydney started showing off her toys, and when he didn't respond
how she wanted him to, she got mad at him. So he flew off her cage and
this time went all the way through the living room, the dining room, and
the kitchen, and landed on the far end of the kitchen on the stove
(which was NOT on). This second flight was at least twice as long as his
first flight, and required him to go around a turn.

I'm so proud of my little boy. Now, if only his tail feathers would regrow.